Jazz Articles about Various Artists

Various Artists: Jazz for Kids: Sing, Clap, Wiggle, and Shake

by J. Robert Bragonier
November 12, 2004

On various lists and forums across the jazz landscape, a lot of virtual ink is devoted to debating the future of jazz: fussing over the predominance of gray heads at jazz festivals, concerts, and venues, and pondering the issue of attendance after these seniors, in the words of Shakespeare, “shuffle off this mortal coil"; lamenting the scarcity of young adults at jazz events, despite the prevalence and apparent popularity of jazz programs at colleges and universities nationwide; and bemoaning the ...

Doctors, Professors, Kings and Queens: The Big Ol' Box of New Orleans

by Charlie B. Dahan
November 7, 2004

Various Artists Doctors, Professors, Kings and Queens: The Big Ol' Box of New Orleans Shout!Factory 2004

Shout Factory's four-CD box set Doctors, Professors, King and Queens: The Big Ol' Box of New Orleans represents a perfect storm when it comes to reissues. This box set is musically exciting, a complete representation of its subject matter, and just plain fun to listen. Not only that, it fulfills a vacuum in the market, because until this ...

Various Artists: Justin Time For Christmas Four

by Mark Sabbatini
November 2, 2004

The problem with too many multi-artist compilation albums is they tend to feel like catalogues--which, ironically enough, is not endearing in a Christmas album. Justin Time For Christmas 4 suffers from this sin, so to speak, then complicates it in a further bit of irony: the handful of artists who turn in performances worthy of further investigation don't seem to have corresponding albums--these are one-shot contributions.

Give the Justin Time label credit, to be sure, for mostly avoiding ...

Various Artists: Modern Drummer Presents Drum Nation Volume One

by John Kelman
November 1, 2004

When the people at Modern Drummer magazine conceived the idea of an album highlighting some of the most innovative drummers on the scene today, they probably didn't realize they would also be making a statement applicable to all instruments: that there are some people who are players of their instruments, and then there are musicians --artists who transcend the boundaries of their instrument, rise above the egotistical concerns of demonstrating just how good they are and ambitiously aim, instead, to ...

Happy Birthday Newport: 50 Swinging Years

by Ken Franckling
October 23, 2004

Various Artists Happy Birthday Newport: 50 Swinging Years Columbia Legacy 2004

Other than going one more time, what better way to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of America's oldest continuing and best known jazz festival than by listening to 27 of its finest and most unusual moments? Festival producer George Wein teamed up with Sony to collect three CDs worth of historic material recorded live at Newport. Most tracks were recorded between ...

Poor Boy: Songs of Nick Drake

by Eyal Hareuveni
October 23, 2004

Various Artists Poor Boy: Songs of Nick Drake Songlines Recordings 2004

Singer/songwriter Nick Drake passed away 30 years ago, but his time-defying songs have gained their iconic stand only after his early death at only 26 years old. Though he released only three albums during his lifetime (1969's Five Leaves Left , 1970's Bryter Later , 1972's Pink Moon ) and another posthumous compilation ( Time of No Reply , 1986) that ...

Various Artists: A Guitar Supreme: Giant Steps in Fusion Guitar

by John Kelman
October 9, 2004

Homage records can be tricky business. How to be reverent to the subject without being so imitative as to be completely superfluous? On that level, the sheer irreverence of A Guitar Supreme means that it doesn't have to worry about direct comparison to its source, the music of saxophone legend John Coltrane. But a proper tribute still has to capture the essence of what the artist is about and reinterpret it in its own way. Gary Husband's The Things I ...